C O U N T Y O U R B L E S S I N G S !

Singing this rich hymn and many others recently has been really been effective medicine for our spirits. Esther noted that this past week was our half-way mark for our stay here in Brazil - she’s actually counting the days. We’ve been feeling the culture-shock and homesickness most acutely these past couple weeks. What joy to focus on these musical messages for our souls…

• O To Be Like Thee!
• Hallelujah, What A Savior!
• Sound the Battle Cry
• One Day!

Daily Life Here: Your prayers are tremendously appreciated. Our time here would not be the blessing it is without you interceding for us. We did not move from the apartment here as we thought we would. Instead, God is teaching us much about contentment in this setting. Some of the aspects of life we are beginning to get used to include:

• doing our laundry by hand (wringing is the hardest part, but getting them to dry during the rainy season has proven to be a bit tricky!) - see 1st video below.
  
• living out of our suitcases (there are no dressers or closets to use here)
• no water heater (i.e. cold showers and heating water from the bathroom sink—there is no kitchen sink-- on the stove to wash dishes and clothes)
• having ants everywhere! (so the sugar is in the frig)
• taking a bus or walking to get around town
• taking our umbrella with us each time we go out
• sleeping with mosquito nets over our beds
• crying out to our loving Jesus for comfort when our hearts ache from missing Chloe and Hannah and our other family and friends in the U.S.
• thanking!! God for the receptive hearts and attitudes Elijah & Esther have had about being a part of our lives as missionaries and thanking God for our afternoon of relaxation at the Amazon River beach (see 2nd video below).
  

Temptations for Men: A few weeks ago we realized Elijah was acting unusually stir-crazy and needing to get out of our apartment more. Several times when we were heading out for groceries or running errands he did not want to go with us. Elijah, whose name means ‘Jehovah is God’ said “Brazil is not a place for boys or men. You can’t hardly look anywhere without seeing women or pictures of them immorally dressed.” We praise God for Elijah’s desire to be pure and choosing to not expose himself to unnecessary temptation.

True Love: Have you heard a really good love story lately? Now then, Daniel and Esther were participants in the wedding of one such couple this month. Daniel had the privilege of giving his 29 year old sister, Angela, in marriage to the Brazilian, Davi Marcos Siqueira, 31 years old.

A wealthy Christian friend of the groom’s family offered to host the wedding ceremony and festivities at his countryside estate. His generosity seemed too much to believe. “Absolutely!”, he said, “I would certainly do this and more for two virgins.” God’s power has been shown in Davi’s and Angela’s lives as they have both grown up in this very adulterous Brazilian culture.

Blessing the Little Ones: While visiting São Paulo for the wedding, we were able to meet with a brother in Christ, Dirceu, who has a church and ministry among one of the poorest slums in Brazil. He was only allowed into the neighborhood because the drug-lord of the area gave him permission to start helping the neglected children of prostitutes and poor families. This same drug lord hires hit-men to protect his territory from policemen. God has given Dirceu favor in the enemy’s territory. As he passed the street corners where the hit-men were posted, they asked him to pray for them. As he did, they lowered their weapons, took off their hats, and many times God softened their hearts to tears. Five of these men so far have left that job for an honest wage with Dirceu’s help. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…” (Luke 4:18)

The Father’s Financial Provision: We’re grateful that the Father has already provided 85% of our minimum budgeted goal and all the regular setup costs! Our Faithful God will certainly provide, as He wills,for the remaining $20,000 for a vehicle and for the rest of the monthly needs. Our estimated time of departure for Mozambique is no later than April 24^th.

Birthday: 450 – 405 = Melissa’s age. Yep, she turned 45 this month. Thank you so much to all of you who sent cards and e-mails that brought great delight to her middle-aged heart!!! We enjoyed sharing a box of Brazilian chocolates after breakfast as part of our celebration.

Language Study: We wish you all could meet our Brazilian jewel, Joelsila, who comes to teach us Portuguese three times a week. She makes learning a lot of fun and begins each lesson with Melissa, Elijah, and Esther with prayer. (Believe me, we need it!) Joelsila expressed excitement about Melissa’s progress because she’s not afraid to practice and make mistakes.

Translation: I (Daniel) am so encouraged that God is providing beyond what I imagined. Even though it was more difficult than I expected to get back into Portuguese, God is helping me translate the 200+ pages of video text, handbooks, and charts for the “Communication Bridges to Oral Cultures”. This is from the training I received from the group I met at the National Missionary Convention. I am especially grateful for our Portuguese teacher who is correcting the translation. This material will greatly aid in training grassroots story-tellers to take God’s story to their non-literate Makua communities. Please pray with us for God to continue to raise up laborers for the harvest! (Luke 10:1-2; Mt 9:36-37)

Abraços (Portuguese for ‘Hugs’),

Daniel, Melissa, Elijah and Esther Maddux

Feliz Natal (Merry Christmas!)

God is really helping us to cry out to Him and be strengthen in the midst of some of our “missionary adventures”. For example, Saturday night we arrived home by bus (which is a bit like riding in the Indy 500). We were all exhausted from a long day out doing laundry and visiting friends. As we approached the front gate we realized that we had left our backpack with our backup set of keys at our friends home. There are three doors to unlock to get into our apartment (on the floor above the church meeting place). Elijah, praise God, had a set of keys but could only get us inside the main church building but not into our rooms. We were all hungry (it was about 7:00 p.m. And we hadn't eaten since lunch) and we didn't want to take the half an hour bus ride back to where the keys were so.... we prayed, “Lord, You know about all these things. What should we do?” There was a handmade ladder in the hallway... God's provision. We carried the ladder outside and propped it against the wall where we each climbed up and hoisted our bags of laundry (still wet and needing to be hung up inside to dry) over the balcony (a little tricky for Melissa in her long skirt). Daniel unlocked the iron gate on the balcony going into Elijah's room and ... we were in! We enjoyed a late supper, hung the wet laundry up to dry, and laughed about our adventure. God is so good. (Someone came Sunday morning with the other keys to unlock the front door.) "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Cor 1:3-4

We've been keenly aware living here how the U.S. is the land of the plentiful. Even in little things like the tea bags we notice such a superior standard of quality in the U.S. (4 Brazilian tea bags = 1 U.S. Tea bag) In almost everything (except the tapioca ice cream and delicious tropical fruits) it is cheaper more abundant, and better quality in the U.S.. A 17 year old came up to us in the mall because he wanted to practice his English. He said his dream and the dream of many people here is to one day go to the United States. Wow! What a sobering thought of stewardship. “To Him who has much much will be required.”

We've enjoyed the church here at Mauriti. Melissa and Esther enjoyed a baby shower with Wednesday before last, a brother came to the front and in tears thanked people by name for trying to stay in touch with him even though he had been running from God. He also asked forgiveness for each of those he felt he had wronged and expressed gratefulness for God powerfully drawing him back. The church here is quite strong in many ways relationally, prayerfully, in the Word... It's the 3^rd and last church Dad & Mom planted. God was honoring my His work done here through them when a brother stated, “Where would all of us be if your parents had not come here? We'd be lost!”

A dear friend, Ricardo Marques, has invited us to come to stay in his home this Saturday until around January 9^th while his family is away for the holidays. It will be a swell situation for us in many ways. First of all, we'll be refreshed with Ricardo's fellowship until he leaves Christmas day. We'll also enjoy waking up to birds singing instead of loud traffic. Elijah and Esther can pay a small fee to swim in the pool near his house and we won't have to transport our laundry by bus each week. Ricardo's home is on the A.V.A. (Amazon Valley Academy) complex where Daniel and his siblings went to school while growing up. Elijah will have lots of area to run and he plans to join the Saturday soccer game on the A.V.A. Field. He played last week and almost had a heat stroke. (He misses the mid-west snow storms.) Our goal is to have more time to focus on our Portuguese study and less on housekeeping.

Esther is much better from her fever and Elijah is over his stomach aches. Esther entertained herself with finger puppets while sick (see pic). They are especially grateful for our friendly allies, the cute lizards who roam the walls here and regularly feast on mosquitoes. The kids are so looking forward to a trip to the beach but we don't know when we'll fit that in. Joelsila teaches us Portuguese Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the afternoons. Elijah and Esther are cruising in their “Teaching Textbooks” math book and are enjoying some musty smelling but wonderful classics we're borrowing from David and Carol Bayless, a dear missionary couple who have helped us so much in our time here.

We've also really been challenged and encouraged each morning with the teaching from “Victorious Christian Living International”. We're in the first booklets on “My Relationship with God.”

We are sure missing all of you, our treasured family, friends, fellow servants of High King Jesus. Chloe and Hannah and their sweethearts are thriving in their relationships and we couldn't be happier about it. Tom and Linda Ledford, our forwarding agents are keeping us propped up here. We especially miss our Hope (church) family. Thank you for your love and prayers!

If you'd like to mail a Christmas card to us (hint, hint:)), mail it to our Brazil address shown in the right margin (this is actually David & Carol Bayless' address). The postage for a card/letter is about two 1^st class stamps and it takes about a week to get here.

Our phone numbers:
011-55-91-8835-5053 – Daniel's mobile
011-55-91-8835-5046 – Melissa mobile
011-55-91-3235-3788 – From December 15^th – January 8^th , Ricardo's land line
913-871-6490 – Call us for free on our Skype-In # if we have a good internet connection.

We're sending you our love and the merriest Christmas greeting. We especially thank those of you who have already sent some Christmas money - totally unexpected!

Growing in God's Wonderful Grace –
The Madduxes
Daniel & Melissa, Elijah & Esther

Elijah and Esther

Today we had our first Portuguese lesson with Joelsila, an older Brazilian woman. Esther wasn't feeling well (flu-like) so she will hopefully participate on Wednesday and Friday when we meet again. We're not sure what Esther is sick with but her Daddy has her on Olive Leaf Extract so she'll certainly be well soon. Hopefully it's nothing related to a mosquito bite, although she has counted over 60 bites on herself in the 1st several days. A few men in the church are going to come and put screens on the windows for us. She has also been surprised with all the places where the ants come marching into our apartment.
We sure miss Chloe and Hannah so much! Elijah has taken up the slack as Mr. Stand-Up comedian and has us belly laughing several times a day. After being here in northern Brazil for only a week, Elijah concluded, "The United States really is like heaven, but the people here are great!" The people are fairly poor but we were very warmly received by the Christians yesterday at church. The young men promised to teach Elijah soccer if he will teach them American football. Yes, he even packed a football in his trunk!
We praise God for some good memories for Elijah and Esther in Brazil.

Hugs,
Daniel & Melissa

Arrival in Brazil

Hello Family,

Praise God we've arrive safely in Brazil and slept a little.

The last church that my parents planted in down-town Belem stayed up all night making the last preparations for our arrival. They did a fantastic job setting us up. It's more like a church camp setting but very livable - little refrigerator, stove, water dispenser, & a fan in each room... There is no kitchen sink, so we'll do the dishes in the bathroom sink. We're so thankful we have so much. We're down the street from the place in a "cyber cafe".

Abrãços, (The Brazilians end their letters and phone calls this way and that word (abrassoos) means "Hugs!")
Daniel, Melissa, Elijah, & Esther

Hope Family Fellowship Send-off to Brazil

Thank you so much Hope Family Fellowship for the loving send-off to Brazil - with many joining in prayer around us and later the fun memories and tears shared. We thank each one of you in all the churches undergirding this work of the Lord which is just beginning.

WE ARE SO GRATEFUL ! ! !

Pray for Melissa and the kids as they continue to learn Portuguese. Pray for me (Daniel) as I begin translating materials for storytelling the gospel among the Makua from www.siutraining.org